The present invention relates to a compound type heat exchanger having a plurality of independent heat exchanging units, such as condenser and oil cooler, integrated with each other.
Normally, an automobile is equipped with some heat exchanging units, for example, a radiator for cooling an engine, an air conditioning condenser, an oil cooler for cooling automatic transmission oil (i.e. ATF oil cooler), an oil cooler for cooling engine oil and so on. Hitherto, the above radiator and the condenser are individually arranged in the front area of an engine. Recently, in view of reducing the installation space of such units for purpose of the downsizing of an engine and also reducing the number of assembling steps of the units, a compound type heat exchanger where a condenser and an oil cooler are integrated in one body has been developed.
In the compound type heat exchanger, however, there is a great difference in temperature between a heat exchanging medium flowing the condenser and oil flowing the oil cooler. Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-18880 discloses a compound type heat exchanger provided, between a condenser and an oil cooler, with a pseudo heat exchanging passage member in which such a heat exchanging medium does not flow.
In the above-mentioned compound type heat exchanger, however, fins are connected to both sides of the pseudo heat exchanging passage member by means of brazing. Therefore, there is a possibility that heat of oil flowing the oil cooler is transmitted to the heat exchanging medium flowing the condenser to deteriorate the heat exchanging efficiency of the heat exchanger.